The Perilous Sea (The Elemental Trilogy #2)

I was not quite as enthralled with The Perilous Sea, a young adult novel by Sherry Thomas, as I was with the first book in the fantasy romance series: The Burning Sky. In fact, my rating dropped from four and a half stars to three. I still liked it; three isn't bad. Sequels are just hard, and if you come to a resolution in the romance aspect of the book, which the first book does already, you have to change things up to keep the reader interested in that. When everything's happy and mushy, that's great. The reader wants things to end there, but the interesting part is the conflict. Granted, I think more books should be written about the happily-ever-after-or-not, what happens after love's first glow fades when reality sets in. I think the Divergent series does a decent job of keeping the romance interesting by adding depth to it once the characters are finally together.

So, The Perilous Sea changes things up to keep the reader interested. In some ways, the changes aid the plot of the story, but as far as the romance goes, it's basically a reset, which is a cheap way to liven things up. Iolanthe (Fairfax), supposedly the greatest elemental mage of her time, and Prince Titus experience memory loss (it's almost cheesy!), and the reader gets to see them fall in love all over again. Yay.... The book alternates between two storylines, one which takes place in the Sahara Desert as the two lovers run for their lives, though they can't remember who they are, and one which takes place in the weeks leading up to their memory loss, in which their relationship takes a downward turn. It would be an interesting dichotomy...if we hadn't already been there, done that. We already got to see them hate and then love each other in the first book.

But in setting up an intriguing mystery for the reader to unravel, the two storylines, past and present, work great, the stronger of the two being the one before the memory loss when things start to go south. The conflict between Iolanthe and Titus is rather painful, but the circumstances that pull them apart are intriguing and leave the reader guessing until the end--who is good, who is bad, who is powerful, who's a pawn.

Since Sherry Thomas is an adult romance writer, I had concerns after reading the first book that the trilogy wouldn't remain sex-free, even though the first book was. This second book teetered dangerously close as the two made plans to have a romantic getaway, but they never ended up doing it. It's possible book three may have that sex scene, though one can always hope they'll be too busy fighting the bad guys to have time for it. In any case, the implication that it's coming and that the characters have no moral reservations about it lowers my opinion of the romance even further.

If the romance wasn't in the way, I think this could be a really good fantasy series with fun characters (Iolanthe pretends to be a boy at an all-boys school in Victorian London, which provides many entertaining moments) and high-stakes danger in a world part-normal-part-magic, similar to that of Harry Potter. Hopefully the next book will be as epic as the first book's set-up promised.

The Immortal Heights, book three of The Elemental Trilogy, comes out in October of this year.

Uprooted

It has been a few weeks (I know, that is now practically the byline of this blog), but I recently read Uprooted, by Naomi Novik, and enjoyed it very much. There seem to be conflicting ideas out there about whether it's young adult fiction or not, but though it shares similar elements with YA, like a 17-year-old heroine and a fantastical storyline, I think it's more in the realm of regular fantasy, which also often has younger protagonists.

In this tale of wizards and an evil Wood, Agnieszka has a penchant for tangling with nature. Leaves, dirt, and other messes all seem to gravitate to her, and she can find plants others can't. But in her corner of the world, nature is not something one wishes to tangle with. Agnieszka's village is near the Wood, where poisonous plants and evil creatures can taint and destroy you with your smallest intake of breath or the barest scratch. A wizard called the Dragon keeps the Wood at bay and protects the nearby villages at the price of one maiden every ten years, and it's time to pick again. He chooses girls with talent and beauty, so Agnieszka knows she is safe. He will not pick her.

The Dragon is old in years and temperament, but youthful in appearance. He is shallow and petty when it comes to beauty, but powerful in magic. Preferring solitude, he avoids the politics of the kingdom as much as possible until the prince seeks the Dragon's help to find his mother, whose loss to the Wood fueled a war. When Agnieszka is thrown into the midst of the kingdom's politics, between war and the Wood, she finds herself surrounded by danger on all sides, her only hope lying in the most dangerous path of all.

I enjoyed this detour from my normal reading, more detailed than young adult and less angsty. Agnieszka is a bit of an old soul, certainly mature for her age, and even more so by book's end. I don't really mind angsty teenage stories all that much (I do read a lot of them), but this one just has an edge to it that keeps it out of that category. Maybe it's the grown-up romance (which actually wasn't my favorite part of the book; more on that in a bit). Maybe it's that the world is not so narrowly focused on the heroine, not all about meeting her needs. Maybe the thought processes are more mature or the story is darker. (Though, have you read young adult lately? I'm doubting the latter.) In any case, it was interesting to read this kind of story without some of the young adult conventions I'm used to seeing.

Speaking of conventions, a big staple of YA fiction is romance. Uprooted does have an element of romance, but it is underplayed and untraditional. And maybe that's why I didn't like it. I think underplaying the romance is an interesting way to go, but making it untraditional, as well, may upset reader expectations too much. (SPOILERS follow!) Agnieszka falls in love with the Dragon, no surprise there. But it's far from a healthy relationship. He's rude and crotchety-mean and much, much older (though YA, too, messes around with age differences--Twilight, for instance). It might help if his mind retained youthfulness, but no, he's pretty much an old fogey who's conceited and vain about his looks. While you could say he warms up to Agnieszka, he never really gets nicer. There's something good to be said for loving someone despite their flaws, of course, but in this case, the relationship borders on abusive. And a bit unbelievable...this naive, innocent girl willingly pushes past all his defenses, literal and figurative, to sleep with him? Granted, the lead-up to it is rather realistic: a certain situation causes them to become more emotionally intimate, and that bridges the gap to the physical side of things. The book has one and a half sex scenes, which I am both impressed by and annoyed with: impressed by the restraint, annoyed because I'd rather not see any sex at all.

After going that far physically, a YA book would be all about the relationship for the rest of the story. Again, this one differs in that you'd almost think they had a one-night stand and went their separate ways. In fact, I believed that nearly to the end of the book. Then, strangely, when romance had been a subplot the whole time, it got the last say. I would have liked more romance (with a better emotional response from the characters) or none at all. What there was just didn't work for me, though it was not bad to try for that kind of originality.

Where the book's romance doesn't phase some, its darkness might--its dealings with magic and witches and evil. In the realm of fantasy, those things don't bother me so much. I make a distinction between witches in fantasy (where the word implies some sort of magic-wielder, neither good nor bad by default) and Halloween or Disney witches (meant to be scary and mean and evil by default). I don't like the latter at all, but this book falls more into the first category, where the witches actually fight evil.

The darkness of this book has more to do with evil creatures and beings who poison and corrupt the good, which is an apt illustration of how good and evil correlate in the real world. In a Christian worldview, we are born sinful. It's innate. Left to our own devices, lazy about our eternal well-being, evil thrives. Thinking more scientifically, the world tends toward entropy. Either way, left alone, the world is bad. Things fall into disorder. It takes work to make things good, to make things beautiful. Disney says that Belle tames the Beast; it's a lie. In real life, pardon me saying so, the Beast would eat her heart out. All this to say that the Wood in Uprooted acts like evil really acts. It's aggressive. If you aren't keeping it out, be sure it is trying to--and it will--get in. I appreciated the truthfulness of this story's take on evil. But be warned, it's dark and heavy stuff. People in the story are corrupted or die or both. It's not for impressionable minds.

Despite the romance and the darkness, I enjoyed the style of storytelling, the magic of the world, and the way the story broadened in scope as it went on, adding layers and depth, taking the reader to surprising places by its end. I enjoyed the friendship between Agnieszka and her best friend Kasia (she's awesome!), which has more substance than the romance. I give the book four out of five stars.

Uprooted is available mid-May.

Firefight (Reckoners #2)

[This review was first published with others on a blog I wrote for Childrenofthewells.com and has been only slightly altered for this website.]

Brandon Sanderson, author of high fantasy, changes style and tone a bit for this young adult series that began with Steelheart and continues with Firefight (published January 2015), but his wit, humor, and vision for winding up a story toward a great end are all on full display. The beginning of Firefight didn’t reel me in immediately, despite having already secured my interest with the first book, but by Part 2 of 5, the game was changing, the stakes were rising, and I was hooked. By about the halfway mark, it began to get difficult to put the book down. My husband, Nick, and I rarely read the same stuff, but we both like Brandon Sanderson. Being a young adult fiction reader, I generally prefer quicker reads like this one. Nick has yet to convince me to read Sanderson’s 1000-page (and that’s just one book out of a whole series) high fantasy epics. And I have to chuckle a little bit as I say that since Firefight and the other books of this series are all about Epics.

(SPOILERS in this paragraph, if you have not read Steelheart) In Firefight, David is a Reckoner, a member of what used to be a highly secret group of Epic slayers, but now David has become a legend. All he wants is for the people to fight back against the super-powered Epics, humans who, one infamous day, gained powers and have used them to conquer and destroy the world. They are dangerous and nearly invincible, each with one carefully guarded weakness, the only thing that can possibly take them down. They are madmen, every last one of them. In this case, absolute power does really corrupt absolutely. David and his team are about to attempt to take down a very powerful Epic and her cohorts in what was once New York City and is now Babilar, a city covered by water where the citizens live relatively peaceful lives under the rule of Regalia. But the woman David loves works for Regalia, and even though his love is an Epic, David is willing to risk his life to prove she can be redeemed.

This was a great sequel. I liked the first one well enough, especially as it progressed (Nick and I both agree that Sanderson has the art of the ending down), but sequels are hard. How do you keep everything that made the first one good but turn it around enough so that it’s not just a copy of the first? Well, you could take notes from Sanderson. He introduces new places, switches out a few people, and changes up the protagonist’s motivations, but still keeps the same sense of humor and, really, even the same basic plot. This series is set up spectacularly for that. There’s always another cool Epic to fight in a world overrun by them, right? But Sanderson has the imagination to remake and redirect his story in such a way that everything is as exciting as the first time. Arguably, this second book is actually better than the first, and that takes serious talent! He is currently writing Book 3, Calamity, and I can hardly wait! Five stars.

Storm Siren

Well, it's been more than a month since I read Storm Siren, a young adult fantasy by Mary Weber, and alas, the details are slipping away. I know I enjoyed it quite a bit and gave it four stars on Goodreads.

The story is this: Nym is a slave, sold from owner to owner because of her unusual looks, looks that mark her as an impossible and dangerous magical being. In Faelen, they kill her kind at birth, but perhaps because she is female (when all the others are male), she escaped that fate, and now no one knows what to do with her except pass her along before she kills them all. Nym doesn't want to kill, but she can't control her powers. When her emotions rage, she ends up calling forth storms and lightning from the sky until everyone around her is dead. But her fifteenth owner is delighted with her powers and offers Nym the chance to use them to fight in the war. Nym really doesn't have any other options, and when she meets the first person who has ever been able to keep her powers at bay, her training begins.

Weber's world is unusual and exciting with a bit more detail than you typically get in young adult fantasy but not so much as to make it high fantasy. This world, its fantastical and bizarre characters and creatures, Nym's struggle with her own powers, and the war setting all draw the reader into a tale that intrigues to the end and excites anticipation for the next installment in the series. There's a little romance, too, of course, but the book is a clean read. No sex or graphic violence, though people do die (it's about a war, after all).

What surprised me most about the book as I began to really enjoy it was that it appeared to be from a Christian publisher: Thomas Nelson. I didn't think I was reading Christian fiction at all, mainly because most of the ARCs I have access to are secular and because most Christian fiction doesn't impress me easily. It's either too preachy or too safe, not morally (I like good, safe morals) but thematically. I'm more impressed by stories where the author is Christian but writes a book that appeals to secular readers and perhaps has a more subtle message. Good stories are good, period, and shouldn't have to be encapsulated in a religious bubble to remain "Christian." That said, there are some great Christian authors out there, who write both secular and Christian stuff, like Ted Dekker.

This story had nothing in it to scream "Christian message coming your way!" except a piece in the middle that was written with more mythological flavor than religious. However, it was clear enough to me, seeing where the book was coming from, that this was the author's way of squeezing a bit of belief in as subtly as possible. Actually, I think it still might have been a little over-the-top. This quiet, pastoral setting just popped up out of nowhere and provided background for the mysterious, religious focal point of the book. It didn't quite mesh with the direction of the rest of the story. I think what the author was trying to accomplish was necessary, but I'm not sure she chose the best way to say it, carefully as she tried. Ironically, I found it too much and too little at the same time. Obviously she was trying to say something without saying too much of anything, and I'm not sure it got said. It honestly could have been written from several different religious viewpoints. But it was a small enough section of the book that it wasn't obtrusive. I don't think there's room to read too much into it.

Aside from my mixed feelings about the presentation of belief in the book, I am always excited to see a book like this on the market. Subtlety is beautiful. Let's not throw our soap box messages at the world. Let's speak our hearts instead. Let's be storytellers like Jesus. He who has ears to hear, let him hear, right?

Storm Siren is certainly an original story, entertaining right up to an end that surprises and leaves you eager to know how it will all unfold. The jury's out on that one until Siren's Fury arrives in June!

The Ring & the Crown

The Ring & the Crown, a young adult novel by Melissa de la Cruz, mixes fantasy and Victorian genres. The idea of magic competing against a sort of scientific and industrial revolution (not steam but electric) is an idea I've not run across a lot. In fact, it was unique enough that a group of my writing friends (myself included) created a world with a similar idea at its starting point. Our plot differs drastically from anything Melissa de la Cruz would write and was conceived far before I picked up her book, but the idea that magic is a sort of science is the backdrop of both stories. (Ours changes even from that. If you want to know more, check out childrenofthewells.com.)

The Ring & the Crown has a large cast of characters. Most young adult books stick to one or two to narrate the story, but this book is a step removed from the immediacy of first-person narration with a third-person limited viewpoint which is interchanged among five different major characters. Though the characters are appropriate for young adult, the writing style bridges the gap between young adult and fantasy or even historical fiction.

I didn't like all the characters. There were really only two I was rooting for, though I wasn't entirely antagonistic to the others. The setting of the plot both intrigued me and contributed to why I didn't like some of the characters. By at least by the end, I was sympathetic to most of them.

The setting is this: a war has come to an end by the soon-to-be alliance of Prince Leopold and Princess Marie whose interests lie in different directions than each other. Meanwhile, Wolf, the younger brother of the engaged prince is trying to find his own direction, be it in girls or fistfights. Leopold's lover, Isabelle, must sign away her engagement to him so that the royal wedding may progress. The American girl, Ronan, must find herself a rich husband in London to save her family's financial situation. And the magician Aelwyn must choose between a life of independence or a life of service to her childhood friend Marie.

The magic history bears remarking on as it appears to be related to a version of the stories of King Arthur, Lancelot, and Merlin, taking place perhaps near a thousand years after those events. Whether this book would claim that story to be the same one we know or whether it's all part of an alternate universe is not addressed but would be an interesting thing to ask the author.

I'm not sure if this book is part of a series, as most young adult books are, or if it is meant to stand alone. It feels like a standalone book, particularly at the end, which attempts to resolve all the characters' lives. The end is abrupt and unexpected. Looking back, I saw a few hints of foreshadowing, but there didn't seem to be quite enough time taken to set everything up. In fact, characters end up explaining the end to one another, an end that is interesting but that feels a bit like the cliff notes version. I certainly had mixed feelings. I generally liked how things were resolved overall, but I felt like not everyone's story was told adequately...and forget happily. I know stories don't have to end neatly and happily to be good (though I prefer happy, or a really good reason not), but when half your main characters fade into obscurity at the end of a book, it's not satisfying. Fortunately, they were the characters I didn't care about as much, but like I said, once my sympathy was aroused, I thought they deserved better. Maybe that's what a sequel could be for.

This book gets three stars from me. Morality plays a small factor in that rating. There was the sensuality I expected just from the nature of the book's content, but the details were mostly implied. There were places where it fit the story and other places where it didn't need to be there but was just added to give some wildness to a character, which could have been done in other ways. On the other hand, I appreciated the interweaving of story lines (until the end) and the way that the world felt like it had some history and depth, and I did enjoy the read despite the odd end and character complaints I have.

Cress (The Lunar Chronicles #3)

Cress (Book 3 of The Lunar Chronicles), by Marissa Meyer is finally here! If you want to know how it all started, read my review of Cinder. I won't post a long review of Cress here because that might involve too many spoilers. But the basics are these: Cress is a hacker who has lived alone in a space satellite for half her life. Her only visitor is a Lunar Thaumaturge, one of the queen's right-hand staff, who gives her different jobs monitoring Earth and is the closest thing Cress has ever known to a mother, cruel and demanding as she is. But Cress has begun to fall in love with the planet below. If only, her fantasies would come true and a real live hero would come and rescue her.

Suffice it to say, this is a great series. Each book continues the story of Cinder while also introducing us to a new made-over fairy tale character. The second book is Scarlet (based on Red Riding Hood), and this one is based on Rapunzel. The story takes place in a world where Earth is united under one emperor, and Luna (the moon) is ruled by an evil queen. The Lunar people have special abilities Earthens don't, such as the ability to alter their appearance and control minds (especially the Thaumaturges). And as if aliens and fairy tales aren't enough, Cinder is cyborg to boot! This story is modern fairy tale, fantasy, and science fiction all mixed together in just the right doses. What's not to love?

I'm very happy with where this series is going. Having seen the continuation of Cinder's story, I'm no longer upset about the end of the first book, as mentioned in that review. The next book is Winter (based on Snow White) and will be released next year. Four solid stars!

The Queen of the Tearling

I was not the first to get my hands on The Queen of the Tearling, a fantasy novel by Erika Johansen. My sister-in-law beat me to it, but both of us were pretty excited to read this advanced reader's copy. And now that we have, both of us love it. It's adult fiction, but this is the kind of story that attracted me to young adult fiction in the first place: a young, gutsy heroine (she's 19) and high-stakes danger. There are obviously elements that separate this story from young adult fiction. It's more detailed and longer than typical YA fare, and there are swear words (though sparse) and a few gruesome scenes (one character's vivid recounting of debauchery and rape, for instance) most YA fiction generally avoids. I hope that those adult elements, however, do not scare you off. They are very tactfully handled and not overused.

Kelsea is supposed to be the next queen of the Tearling when she reaches her nineteenth birthday. That day has come, and she must leave the little cottage that has been her entire world. But in the world she is to rule, there are many who would rather things remain as they are and are willing to pay big money for her head. There's the regent, her uncle, a despicable man with many vices. There's the evil Red Queen, who has the power to destroy the Tearling. And there are others hiding in the dark, waiting for an opportunity to profit in whatever way they may. Kelsea has a big job ahead of her, and it could kill her, if she doesn't die before she gets there. All alone, accompanied by a handful of old guards who are sworn to secrecy but know nothing about her, Kelsea must earn her place every step of the way.

 I assumed this story would have more romance (it was advertised on the back cover), but it really doesn't, at least not in this first installment of the series, and the main character is described as plain and mannish. The point is that this girl is different than her mother, the beautiful and shallow queen before her. Kelsea is a girl who's studied her entire life to be a good judge and moral ruler, and when faced with the chaos of her country, she tackles it head-on, despite feeling nothing like a queen. I liked that there wasn't the distraction of romance (though there are very tiny hints of what might come), and actually, Kelsea's plainness lends a certain gravity and strength to the story. We see right off the bat that she's a woman of depth, something the country desperately needs. We know she is the right person for the job, if she can manage to get it. Sometimes romance is all the entertainment value of the story, but this one doesn't need it to be interesting and keep things moving along. The mystery of Kelsea's ancestry and the secrets hidden from her, even though she's supposed to be queen, pull the reader into the story, and throughout, Kelsea and the reader must piece together the larger picture of what happened to this country's people and what she must do about it.

Now, I must talk a bit about the setting. It's highly unusual. At first glance, it appears somewhat medieval, like most fantasy worlds. Horses, no modern conveniences, castles, peasants, and magic--pretty straightforward fantasy, nothing unusual there. But actually, there are hints throughout the story about a world that existed before, a world that sounds a lot like our modern world. America is mentioned. Books exist from our time, like The Hobbit and The Bible. The details are extremely murky and pieced together, but from what I can tell, people left our world in an event called The Crossing. Whatever they brought with them was all they had to start over, completely new. There were some doctors, so some medical knowledge was saved. A few books came over, but not a way to print more. What I can't figure out is where this new world is. Is it a new part of Earth, or is it a parallel dimension? Did they cross the stars (though it seems they speak of crossing an ocean)? And what happened to the rest of Earth? And how did magic enter the equation? These questions don't need answered for the story to work, but they were always part of the backstory, just enough information given to make me curious about the rest. Essentially, the setting is medieval fantasy, taking place in a world that comes after our modern one.

One more thing bears remarking on. I'm not sure how I feel about how the book presents religion. Kelsea studies The Bible as part of her training to rule, just as one might study one book of many but also because the Arvath (a religious group with roots in Catholicism) is a corrupt power to be reckoned with. It's not presented as a true book, and though Kelsea reads it cover to cover, she doesn't believe in it. So, I thought the author had a negative inclination toward religion, but then she has a character who's devout, a priest who's not corrupt but truly believes in his faith. He's a sympathetic character, despite his beliefs. Granted, he's a great lover of books, like Kelsea is, so I think the emphasis is on the value of knowledge rather than faith. But I was pleased to see that religion wasn't thrown out as entirely evil. I don't have any hopes that it will progress beyond what it is, though.

Overall, I just loved this book for being a story about a girl going up against high odds with nothing in her favor but her strong mind and kind heart. I loved the mystery, and I grew to love numerous other multi-faceted characters along the way. That the main character is a queen and the setting is medieval doesn't hurt one bit either.

The Queen of the Tearling will be released in July of this year. Four stars.

The Burning Sky

I wasn't sure at first that I would enjoy The Burning Sky, a young adult fantasy romance by Sherry Thomas, but it didn't take me long to become fascinated, and by the end, I wasn't ready for it to be over. Fortunately, it's just the beginning of a trilogy, but that's also the frustrating part: I can't read the next part of the story yet.

The Burning Sky has some elements that are Harry-Potter-like, particularly as far as magic is concerned. Magic is usually performed with a wand, and certain Latin words must be recited. There is a hidden magic realm, but the kids go to school in Victorian London in the normal world. There is a magical train car that attaches to the regular train to transport one of them to the school. And there's a big baddie that the characters are destined to defeat.

Harry Potter is not the only magic world that seems borrowed from. In fact, the magic elements of the story cross over into something a little like Avatar: The Last Airbender. There's subtle magic, which most people use, and then there's elemental magic, which is direct control over water, earth, fire, and air. And like in Avatar: The Last Airbender, the character is supposed to be the greatest elemental mage of her time, which means she should be able to control all four elements; she just can't figure out how to master air. But aside from these noticeable similarities to other stories, the plot of this one veers off into new territory soon enough.

The story itself is intriguing and relatively large-world, though focused narrowly on only two characters. One is Prince Titus, who is basically a puppet sent to school in the normal world so that he can have even less chance of learning magic and gaining the power he might need to overthrow the Bane. The other is Iolanthe, a young elemental mage, struggling to provide for her addicted caretaker through the sale of what she considers to be paltry elemental magic powers. But the prince has been waiting for a prophecy given by his now-dead mother to reveal to him the elemental mage he must help to defeat the Bane. It's a cause he's willing to give his life for, but when Iolanthe shows up, she's anything but what he expected. What's more, she doesn't have the same convictions he has. Iolanthe needs his protection to hide from the Bane. She'll even pretend to be a boy at an all-boys school. But she won't make it easy for the prince.

When I was looking up Sherry Thomas on Goodreads, I was surprised to discover that she is a prolific adult romance writer. From the types of covers her romances have, one might expect this book to be more sensual. But there's no sex at all. Instead, there's the underlying tension of a boy falling in love with a girl who doesn't even like him and not being able to do much about it because of the fact that he's trying to pass her off as a boy to all who know him. It's a fun romance that grows from friendship, or at least a partnership, first. You know the girl is going to come around. Otherwise, it wouldn't be a romance. But the fun is in how it all comes about. Thomas is obviously experienced on that end, and I'm pleased to say she delivers well on all accounts: romance, adventure, fantasy, fairy tale. I cannot say whether future novels in the trilogy will remain sex-free, but at least this first one is a safe and morally sound read for all, without sacrificing an interesting plot.

Four and a half stars.

Jack the Giant Slayer in Theaters Now

Jack the Giant Slayer was my second choice to see in theaters this month, but when you have kids, sometimes you just have to go with the time that works. Oz the Great and Powerful comes out next weekend, and Jack was in town now. So, we went to see Jack. My expectations were set rather low. By now, I should know better than to trust any reviews from Entertainment Weekly Magazine. As much as I enjoy getting my copy in the mail every Friday, I rarely agree with their opinions on movies. Jack got a C+ from them, and though to a certain extent I can see why they thought it was only an average movie, I thought there were aspects of it that really made it stand out from the typical fairytale fare we're often served.

Overall, I really liked Jack the Giant Slayer. I didn't see it in 3D, which is probably an adventure all by itself, but it didn't need the effects to be entertaining. Jack has danger, wild adventure, a bit of romance, and just the right touch of humor, all of these characteristics melding together into a lighthearted but still epic tale of heroism. It doesn't try to be funny just to be funny, but it doesn't take itself too seriously either. It's fun.

The plot itself is very straightforward, but that's not to say it's entirely predictable. The princess gets snatched. The farm boy goes to save her. All kinds of adventure follow. But the conflict isn't drawn out as many other similar movies do. Nothing takes too long to resolve. No conflict lasts throughout the movie. Bad guys die off like flies. But all this keeps the movie moving and changing, and the viewer doesn't get bored. The stereotypical mistrust you often have between a story's good characters, all the misunderstanding that slows the plot down, just isn't there. Although that kind of stuff can make good conflict sometimes, it's so overdone in movies, especially romances, that you feel like yelling at the central characters to get over themselves and see what the audience saw long ago. But Jack moves things right along in a way that's refreshing. Sure, you don't get a lot of in-depth character development, but that's not why you go to see a movie like Jack.

And you don't need a lot of character development when you have fantastic entertaining characters to begin with, as Jack does. Though, admittedly, they are static and somewhat stereotypical, they are also individualized. Even the minor characters stand out, quirky and fun, and you care or at least have an opinion ("he deserved to lose his head") about nearly all of them. I really enjoyed seeing a relatively new face in Jack himself, played adorably by Nicholas Hoult. And Ian McShane and Ewan McGregor give fun, heartfelt, memorable performances as the king and the head guard in charge of the princess's safety. They have the best lines.

Jack is rated PG-13. A fair amount of people die, some rather gruesomely eaten by giants, but nothing is very graphic. There are probably some middle-schoolers who would absolutely love it, but I, personally, wouldn't take younger kids.

(Minor SPOILER alert!) Jack certainly has its over-the-top moments (like falling with a giant beanstalk and landing safely, or the princess coming out of her tent with perfect curls literally ten seconds after looking like she'd just ridden aforementioned falling beanstalk a mile to the ground), but the moments fit in fairytale land without making the movie completely implausible for those of us who like things a little more real. It's a solid fairytale movie without the singing or overabundance of cheap jokes that many lighter, bubblier fairytale movies have. Comparing it to other fairytales adapted for the screen, it's not nearly as serious as Snow White and the Huntsman, but it's not as ridiculous as Ella Enchanted (which I enjoyed anyway, back in the day) or Mirror, Mirror. There's a happy middle that evokes childhood memories of listening sleepily to your parents reading grand adventures. Incidentally, but perhaps not accidentally, that's exactly how Jack the Giant Slayer begins, with children listening to tall tales. And if you go see Jack, just sit back, become a kid again, and enjoy the telling.

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey in Theaters Now

Oh, wow, where to start? By the way, that wasn't a good "wow," I'm sorry to say. The Hobbit left me and my husband, overall, disappointed. There were some great parts, I'll admit, and I'll get to those in just a bit. But, first, the "bad and ugly."

Perhaps my main problem with the movie is that it feels like a copycat of the Lord of the Rings movies. In fact, switch out a few characters, settings, and plotlines and you have The Fellowship of the Ring. A mismatched group goes on a quest, gets chased by orcs, visits the elves, gets caught in a storm (of sorts) on a narrow mountain path, and gets chased beneath the mountain (which is ludicrous; they fall continuously, even hundreds of feet, some of them getting smashed by a huge, fat goblin king, and come out unscathed). Now, isn't that line-up of events exactly The Fellowship of the Ring? Granted, some of that is straight out of The Hobbit, but a lot of the details aren't, my husband informs me. (It's been too long since I read The Hobbit for me to compare. My husband just re-read it.) And then as the flames rise and all hope seems lost, the eagles swoop in and save the day. My husband says a form of this is actually in The Hobbit, too, but I remember it best from The Return of the King movie, where Frodo and Sam are waiting to die, hot lava all around, after destroying the ring. Not much about this newest movie stands out from its predecessors, but it could have. It's not that The Hobbit is badly written, not at all! So, it baffles that Peter Jackson and his crew felt the need to change it so much, to add pieces of history from other Tolkien manuscripts but not even follow those correctly.

Now, had I not seen the other three Lord of the Rings movies, I would have thought this movie was beautiful. I don't mind the CG effects as much as others, my husband included, who would prefer a more realistic art and backdrop. I love the settings of Middle Earth...but I've seen it all before. The first few times Lord of the Rings panned over a straight line of travelers traversing a mountain ridge with breathtaking majesty behind them, I thought that was awesome. This time, it's just old...and time-consuming.

This movie does not need to be as long as it is, and The Hobbit certainly doesn't need to be three movies. It's a rather short little book, and it's very singularly focused...on a hobbit. It's not The Hobbit: The Fellowship of the Arkenstone. It's not The Hobbit: Thorin is the New Aragorn. It's not The Hobbit: A Dwarf's Tale. It's The Hobbit[: no addendum].

But where the movie went right, I'll admit, it went oh-so-right. I absolutely loved Bilbo. Perhaps it was partly my familiarity with the actor as Watson on the Brits' TV show Sherlock, but I was thoroughly enamored with his portrayal of Bilbo. He salvages a tiny bit of the movie and endears himself to us as well as any previously portrayed hobbit ever has. Bravo, Martin Freeman!

One part my husband and I agree goes particularly well is the chaotic dwarf supper at Bilbo's house. It's wonderful fun and adds life to a cast of characters that are otherwise unremarkable and interchangeable. I also enjoyed the capture by and escape from the trolls and the riddle exchange with Gollum, both memorable parts of The Hobbit.

But even I noticed places where details didn't quite match up with the book, such as the manner in which Bilbo discovers the ring. That seemed so iconic in the book to me that I wondered how you could mess with it. After all, it's been ages since I read the book, and I still remember it. His fingers stumble upon it in the dark. In the movie, however, Bilbo sees the ring fall from Gollum. It bothered me at first, but my husband actually argued in favor of the change, and now I can see why they did it for the movie. It helps establish that the ring was Gollum's, that he lost it accidentally, and even that the ring was looking for a new master. You'd only know the last by being familiar with the story already, but I suppose the movie's take is a more cinematic representation than simply discovering it underhand.

Aside from enjoying the few good, straight-from-the-book events, my overall feeling during the movie was one of boredom. The scenery shots were too long. The extra characters weren't essential to the plot (at least, not the book's plot). The elves were nothing new. Radagast was interesting but nonessential.

Now, contrary to my husband's feelings and despite what I said above about The Hobbit needing to be about a hobbit, I did enjoy Thorin's back story. I only wish it were more true to Tolkien's work, but my husband can tell you all about that; it's not my area of expertise.

My husband could even tell you that Bilbo wasn't quite right, that they tried to make him a hero when he is not, more purposeful than he actually is. Well, I didn't notice that so much during the viewing, but I thought it was an interesting observation worth noting.

My husband and I are not a case of opposites attracting, at least not in the way we think. I must say this so you don't think I'm just being a parrot. I think the people you watch a movie with can influence your take on it, but in this case, I gave Nick my thoughts before he told me his. And I'm refraining from including most of his complaints.

So, star rating? Oh, that's hard...because honestly, I'll probably go see how the story progresses and ends. It's Middle Earth, after all, and who doesn't love the place? I like to see it any way I can. But was this movie The Hobbit? No. Was it an Unexpected Journey? You bet. And for me, that wasn't a good thing. I think I'm rather alone in my views, so if you loved the movie, great! It's just my take.

The Spindlers

I must confess, I picked up middle-grade novel The Spindlers, by Lauren Oliver, more because of the author than interest in the content. That's funny, too, because I didn't love her young adult novel Delirium as much as I do most other dystopian novels. I guess I figured I'd give her another try. In fact, I have another older middle-school novel of hers that's been waiting awhile on my shelf. Maybe it's time to give that one a shot, too.

The Spindlers starts out slow...and a little kiddy, to be honest. I felt like I was reading elementary school fiction, and that's the age group I would recommend this to, having finished it. But it picks up toward the middle and is downright compelling as it nears the end.

Liza is a normal girl who wakes up one day to discover that her brother's soul is missing. He's still there, pretending to be himself, but Liza knows the difference. Her babysitter (and here I'm thinking, really? How can I take this adventure seriously if it's put into the realm of the babysitter's ghost stories?) has told her of the Spindlers, spider-like creatures who rule the Underworld and steal souls. Liza knows they have Patrick, and with the grownups calling her a storyteller and fibber, it's up to her to go down and get him back. But the Spindlers aren't the only danger that awaits her.

Yeah, I wasn't too fond of the whole babysitter-tells-stories-that-end-up-being-true idea. It makes you wonder from the start if any of the adventure is real or if it's all just in Liza's head or dreams. Perhaps the author realized this because she makes a point of proving to the reader (and to Liza, actually) that it's all real. But if you really wanted to, you could say it all happened in Liza's head, and it would still fit the book. I don't think that's what the author meant to imply at all, but it could easily be read that way.

That certainly contributed to my dislike of the beginning of this book. It was slow, too, in getting to any real danger. Liza meets some vaguely interesting creatures at the start of her adventure in the Underworld, but I kept hoping for more. And finally, the book gave me more. The Spindlers are the ultimate dangerous goal, but Liza's journey there holds its own dangers and surprises.

I'm not sure how old Liza is, but she seems young, maybe only slightly older than Lucy in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. The book is targeted toward grades three through seven, but I would recommend it to the younger side of that spectrum. From what I've observed, kids who read usually read above their age level.

I was pleased to see that as in The Chronicles of Narnia, there is real danger (as long as it's not all a dream) for Liza in the Underworld. It's good to expose kids to a healthy amount of danger in books. Notice, I say "healthy," and by that I mean a parent still needs to monitor a child's reading experience. But I would say The Spindlers is a pretty safe bet for most kids.

Three stars for turning out to be an imaginative adventure worth reading.

Eventide (Tales of the Dragon's Bard, Book 1)

Eventide (Tales of the Dragon's Bard, Book 1), by renowned fantasy writer Tracy Hickman and his wife Laura, is one of those rare books I read that are not young adult fiction, books that appeal to me because they contain well-told stories about subjects more fascinating than everyday life. Ironically, Eventide is about a ho-hum cast of characters from a little fantasy village. Nothing much more exciting than winning pie contests happens to them. Yet, there's more to the village than meets the eye. And the one who will bring out those stories is none other than the ridiculous, ostentatious Dragon's Bard.

When Edvard, the Dragon's Bard, arrives with his scribe Abel at the village of Eventide, he is on a quest to collect stories to entertain the dragon who let him go. He meets Jarod, a shy accountant who secretly loves one of the wish-women of the town's broken wishing well, an old centaur farmer, a talented but underestimated dwarf blacksmith, a leather tanner who can't smell his own stinky work, and a gossiping river fairy, just to name a few. When Edvard tries to liven up their lives for his tales, the sleepy little town is in for not a few misunderstandings and a bit of troublesome adventure!

Eventide is fantasy, but it's not about the princess or the knight or even the dragon. It's about people like you and me, but it's interesting because it takes place in a world where all the above exists, too.

The main character is actually not the Dragon's Bard but the accountant Jarod, though other characters get bits of their stories told as well. It might be hard to enjoy a novel about only silly people, so it's nice that Jarod and his father are among the more polished and intelligent occupants of the town, thus allowing the reader to identify with and root for Jarod.

Read my review of my husband's soon-to-be-published novel The Unremarkable Squire because it's a very similar piece of fiction. My husband loves to use misfit characters and has enjoyed Hickman's books in the past because of theirs. Tracy and Laura Hickman's Eventide is all about misfits, though perhaps they are not as misfit as they at first seem. Many of the characters have quite a bit of depth once the story delves into their lives a bit, and maybe that's the point. Tales can be found anywhere. Romance can be epic, even in a tiny village. Everyone has a secret at one point or another.


This novel is relatively short for fantasy. It's clean and funny and doesn't bog you down too much in fantasy detail (but is slower-paced than young adult, still). I think I'll keep this one on my shelf at home. Three stars all around.

The Lost Code (Book 1 of The Atlanteans)

The Lost Code (Book 1 of The Atlanteans), by Kevin Emerson, is a fun post-apocalyptic, dystopian adventure that advertises itself too cheaply. Since when did The Hunger Games become the new standard for violence in young adult fiction, making anything "tamer" be geared toward a younger audience? That makes it sound like anything other than hardcore is boring, and in my opinion, if it's too boring for young adult, it's probably too boring, period.

Here's the deal. There is some discussion going around on whether or not The Lost Code is for younger teen readers than many other popular young adult novels. For instance, it's being compared to Gone, which is about kids who are of a similar age, but which has, perhaps, heavier thematic content and scarier danger. Supposedly, it's for a younger audience than Gone is. I disagree. They may be for different audiences, but it's misleading to say a book is for a younger audience. That implies that older teens won't enjoy it, which simply isn't true. I can understand if a teen isn't mature enough for some books. In that case, perhaps The Lost Code is better for younger readers than Gone is. However, readers shouldn't automatically infer that it works in the opposite direction: that some readers are too old for a book. If a book is written well, nobody should be too old for it. I'm fast approaching the end of three decades (Sheesh! That makes me sound old!), and I love young adult novels. It's because they are often good stories, and good stories are universal.

I think one reason people are saying this book is for younger readers is because Owen, the main character, does sometimes seem like a younger teen. He's not immature, but the other kids his age around him are pretty immature, making you wonder just how old he might be. I don't believe the book ever gives an exact age. There is a notable difference between the mind of Katniss (Hunger Games) and that of Owen (though Owen and Gone's Sam aren't that far off from each other), so I can see why someone might say The Lost Code is for a younger audience than The Hunger Games.

The issue, though, seems to be more about the book's content than the age of the kids in the book. The Lost Code is not as violent or scary as The Hunger Games or Gone, granted. But advertising it as tamed-down adventure might lose it some readers who might have actually enjoyed it (almost lost me). There is actually a scene as gruesome as some in more hardcore books, although The Lost Code isn't kids pitted against other kids, which adds a certain horror and ups the stakes, perhaps. I don't think a book should be considered only for a younger audience just because it's on the lighter side, and on the other hand, I don't think young readers should always be protected from reading heavier stuff (though that should be determined by parents on a child-by-child basis). It's my belief that the important thing is story, and this story holds its own.

In The Lost Code, Owen gets to go from his underground community to summer camp in one of only a few specially designed domes, protecting people from the end-of-the-world conditions and radiation outside. He immediately fails the swim test and drowns; only, he doesn't. His body adapts to his surroundings, and suddenly, he finds himself part of something much bigger than he ever dreamed could come out of summer camp: an ancient secret related to the location of the domes and the very genetic make-up of his DNA. To say the least, things aren't what they seem at Camp Eden.

Evoking summer camp nostalgia, Emerson creates a world desperately trying to pretend everything isn't falling apart. This juxtaposition, along with bits of romance, science fiction, fantasy, and mystery, makes this an intriguing, entertaining read. As the plot develops, it gets more complex, and the end promises more high-stakes danger and adventure to follow in future books. Summer camp seems so mundane for a book about the end of the world, but I think that's why the story is so interesting and strong. It's the familiar juxtaposed against the future, and who doesn't love to speculate about that?

The Lost Code is available this month. Three stars.

SWATH in Theaters Now!

Based upon what I'd seen in the previews, I was pretty excited to see Snow White and the Huntsman (known as SWATH on the web). I knew it would be dark, so there were no surprises there. I expected amazing costumes and visually stunning cinematography. But there were a few other surprises, both good and bad.

SWATH actually follows the original story of Snow White (at least what I know from Disney) fairly closely. I guess I expected something that diverted a little more since the title, after all, wasn't Snow White and the Prince. Perhaps the biggest surprise, which isn't a surprise if you know the story well, is Snow White's affinity to animals, drawing them to herself, being able to calm them. I just wasn't expecting it in this story where the previews have focused on Charlize Theron's evil queen Ravenna. But the magic is somewhat balanced in this telling. On one side is the evil queen's black magic and poisonous control, which has killed the land. On the other side is a sanctuary of good magic where Snow White communes with the fairies and animals and the land is still verdant. This sanctuary reminded me strongly of The Chronicles of Narnia, with its "old magic" feel. It surprised me so much to see that aspect that I didn't like it much at first. It was beautiful, but I kept thinking it was a knockoff of Narnia, and a cheap one at that. It has grown on me since watching it.

Kristen Stewart (known for her role as Bella in the Twilight series) and Chris Hemsworth (known for his role as the comic book god Thor) star as Snow White and the Huntsman. The Huntsman is a drunk who gets tricked into hunting down Snow White in exchange for the return of his dead wife. Hemsworth does a fine job of portraying a giant of a man, lost in deep sorrow. Stewart plays a darker Snow White than Disney's, but it works in this tale of a girl imprisoned for many years in a tower of her own castle. Snow White is sad and serious and very dirty. It's almost funny that under all that dirt is the most beautiful woman in the land. Unfortunately, perhaps, for Stewart, her previous role as Bella colors viewers' opinions of her in SWATH. She plays a similar sort of character. But Twilight aside, Stewart fits the dark, sad princess she's meant to portray here.

I enjoyed this retelling of the story. I liked the visuals and the behind-the-scene ideas. I liked the way this portrayal fleshed out the original story. But thematically, SWATH falls short. The themes certainly aren't bad in and of themselves, but they lack cohesiveness. At the end, they need just a little something extra to tie them all together and wrap things up for the viewer, but instead, the end just leaves you feeling a little bereft and slightly confused.

(SPOILERS follow throughout the remainder of the review.)

Despite the suggestive title and movie poster images, SWATH is not a love story. The Huntsman is grieving over his dead wife. Snow White depends on his help, and he comes to admire her. He even says she reminds him of his wife. But despite a kiss, there's no sense that a romance is blossoming except what the viewer's preconceptions put there. The kiss awakens Snow White, but here's where the mythology of the story and the thematic elements get a little confusing. We don't actually know why the kiss awakens her. It doesn't seem to be true love. I don't think it's even meant to be, unless there's something in the subtext I missed.

There is actually a Prince of sorts in this story, though the title might lead you to think otherwise. In this telling, he's actually a Duke's son and Snow White's closest friend when they are children. He eventually joins her party and regrets that he did not know she was alive sooner, but there's no romance there either. This story is more about war than love, so that makes sense. But if you are looking for romance, you'll be disappointed. Snow White doesn't get her Huntsman or her Duke. Both kiss her, and I guess if you are pulling for one or the other, the Huntsman wins, but it's a rather anti-climactic love triangle. Absolutely nothing happens. Actually, it's kind of refreshing if you are sick of love triangles and forced, cheap romances. The problem is not in the lack of romance, but as I said before, it's in the lack of any solid, unifying themes. I'll try to explain.

Snow White is innocent and pure, which is why she can defeat the queen. The Huntsman tries to teach her to use a knife, and she says she could never do that to anyone, which is consistent with the whole innocent character thing. This Snow White may be a fighter, but that doesn't mean she needs to wield a sword. That's great. That's the idea I got at the beginning of the movie. Then Snow White eats the apple and dies, which by the way, isn't very smart of the queen. As explained in this movie, Ravenna needs Snow White's fresh beating heart in her hand in order to become immortal. So, why does she do all that pretending with the apple? Why not just carve the heart right out of the girl? Anyway, Snow White returns to life with a kiss (the meaning of which, as I explained above, isn't clear), and suddenly, she is a new person. She gives an impassioned speech and then leads her army against the queen. I think I could have believed it with just a tiny bit more explanation, something to tie the loose ends together. Because, sure, dying changes a person. That's believable. But the why of it should be clear. You're a bad person; you die; you come back to life: you realize you'd better get your act together. You're a good person; you die; you come back to life: you become a fighter? It's not the obvious sequitur. I would have more easily believed that Snow White's purity gave her greater powers when the queen killed her. Instead, it's like she all of a sudden "grew up." She was running from destiny before, and now she's ready to face it. I guess that works, too, but it's kind of lame for a movie with so much cool magic and mythology. Why not use the mythology to its fullest advantage?

Snow White ends up stabbing the queen. In the end, it isn't her purity that kills the queen. It's the Huntsman's advice that she initially turns down, presumably because she is too good to do something like that. I couldn't figure out if the movie was telling me that Snow White's innocence and purity were good or that Snow White was just naive at the beginning. It seemed like it was saying both, and that simply doesn't work.

Snow White's last words to the queen are, "You cannot have my heart." But she says it with tears on her cheeks and this compassion she seemed to have all along for the queen so that I kept waiting for the implied "but" in the sentence: "You can't have my heart, but...." A few more words there could have been the clincher. It could have been the explanation for why one magic was more powerful than the other. But actually, I don't think the movie makers were trying to say one magic was more powerful. The only reason I can see, according to the movie, that Snow White defeats the queen is that a prophecy says the queen can only be defeated by someone more beautiful than she. If that's the case, why show us the good magic or go on and on about how Snow White is "The One," as though it means something (more than beauty, that is)? Granted, it fits the story of Snow White, which is about one beauty winning out over another, but the way the story is played in the movie, it seems like they were trying to make it be about something more.

So, there is no thematic resolution and no romantic resolution to this movie, only a slapped-together emotional resolution that doesn't follow logic and seems to rest more on revenge. Again, that alone would work for some movies. This movie just had so many things it was trying to do that it couldn't pull them all off together.

The best part of this movie is definitely Ravenna, and more than anything, I think the producers were concerned about making a cool-looking movie. Her costumes are gorgeous, if you like skulls and that gothic look, and at one point, she turns herself into a flock of ravens, which when they return and form her body again is grotesque but visually stunning. This movie was made to jar the senses, and I knew that before I saw it, just from the trailers. It's rated PG-13 for graphic fantasy violence.

One scene perfectly illustrates the entire movie for me. Ravenna dips herself into something that looks like thick milk, and as she comes up, crown on but otherwise naked (nothing shows), the mud is dripping beautifully down her face and neck, making her look like a sculpture. The scene is fantastic, but you don't really know what's going on. Mud bath? With her crown on? She'd just eaten a bird's heart, so magic ritual...? An illustration of her evilness and the extent of her poison that she bathes in this while the people outside are desperate for the leftovers of her bath going down the drainage pipes?

This movie is beautiful (in a very dark kind of way), but it kind of leaves you wondering what exactly it's about. Three stars.

The Three Musketeers on DVD

The 1993 version of The Three Musketeers, starring Tim Curry among others, was one of my favorite movies growing up, so I was pretty excited to see this version, crazy as it seemed it might be with fantastical elements, including airships. Sadly, I was a bit disappointed. There were things I liked about it, but overall, the dialog was a little cliche, the plot was overly simplistic (almost like a spoof of its 1993 counterpart), and the action lacked spark. The costumes were colorful and the characters were funny, but that's not enough to carry a movie. It's not a terrible rendition (I've been meaning to read the book for years but haven't yet, so this comment is based on what I know from the 1993 movie.), but it feels a bit like a modernized rerun of an earlier movie and not a story that got its source material from the book.

Since it stars Orlando Bloom among others, you almost get the sense (right or wrong) that the producers were hoping for a wild ride along the lines of Pirates of the Carribean, something that would grab the viewers like those movies did and create a franchise. Have you heard anything about last year's The Three Musketeers since it came out? Me neither. Obviously, if that was the plan, it failed, but I'm only speculating.

The music was reminiscent of the new Sherlock Holmes movies with Robert Downey Jr., which was fun, but again, it felt like it was copying and not being original. Perhaps the most original work of the film was the king's character, played by Freddie Fox, a more childish and ridiculous king than his counterpart in the 1993 version. I didn't like it at first, but it grew on me, particularly as we got to know the king a little better and saw that he did have at least one deep side: his love for his new queen.

In fact, vibrant characters, many relatively unknown, is what this movie has going for it. Athos (played by Matthew Macfayden, who played Mr. Darcy in the most recent Pride and Prejudice), Aramis, and Porthos are played well (if not with much depth of character), and D'Artagnon is young and played completely cocky, more so than I would have thought would work, but it did. The two-faced Milady de Winter, however, is more annoying than genius. She's played sexy, even when no one on screen is watching, which I found unnecessary. I must confess, I didn't recognize Orlando Bloom through the movie, though he plays a fairly big part, but I wasn't looking for him either. Many faces in the movie seemed familiar but weren't placed until the credits rolled.

It's rated PG-13 for "adventure action violence," according to imdb.com (where, incidentally, I always look for ratings information), but there's a lot of cleavage and a scene with Milady where she acts like she's dancing on a stage rather than repelling down a wall.

Overall, it's an okay movie if you've nothing better to do. I'm sorry if you paid the money to see it in theaters, and don't hurry down to the movie store to rent this one next. But for a little entertainment and an excuse to eat a bowl of popcorn on a lazy day, it's not terrible. Almost three stars.

John Carter in Theaters Now

I went to see John Carter yesterday, opening night. This movie is based on books (which I haven't read) by Edgar Rice Burroughs, the same fellow who wrote Tarzan, to give you an idea of what sort of story and from what era it is. Actually, it feels a little like Star Wars, as you will see as you read more here.

If you haven't seen the previews, the basic premise is this: in the late 1800's, Captain John Carter, a fighter of a man with nothing left to live for after he loses home, wife, and child, stumbles into a sacred cave and ends up getting transported to the next planet over, Mars. Because of the gravitational difference, he is much more powerful on Mars than on Earth, and the smallest of movements sends him reeling into the air until he figures out how to control himself. He ends up as a pet of sorts in the city of a tall warrior alien race worthy of Star Wars.

Meanwhile, the scientist princess of the Redmen, a human-looking race, is engaged to be married to a brute of a man who wants to control the planet, and in her flight from her would-be husband, she is rescued by a man who can jump from the ground to the airborne ships they ride: John Carter.

What neither of them realize is that events on the planet of Mars are being orchestrated by an immortal race with a sinister agenda, and John Carter is not part of their equation.

The movie has quite a few plotlines going, but it's only confusing at the beginning when things are getting set up. Unfortunately for the movie, this long set-up as well as the many names and languages being thrown around and the difficulty of understanding everything said due to accents, language, or just volume might turn the audience off. But if you are willing to give the movie a chance to establish its world(s), the payoff is great.

The intertwining plots make the world seem fuller (it is based on a book, which would spend some time world-building, after all). The princess is intriguing, being a scientist, a warrior, and sometimes a lady in distress, too. John Carter's character is set up brilliantly and humorously, and in fact, there are moments of humor interspersed throughout the movie. But it doesn't feel like comedy. It's done so well that you might miss some of it if you blink or tune out: a short line of dialog here, a slap across the back of the head there. Then, some of the humor is more obvious. There's a loveable dog-like monstrous creature. And John Carter's attempts to adapt to the gravity on Mars, not to mention a surprising moment in an arena involving lots of blue blood, add lightness to a movie that could have made the mistake of taking itself too seriously. But it doesn't, perhaps coming across as a glorified B movie, to begin with, but wasn't that Star Wars, too?

As far as morality goes, again, compare to Star Wars. The gore is similar, and the princess wears some clothes that will remind you a bit of Princess Leia's slave get-up. It's rated PG-13.

Though I wasn't sure what to think of the movie at the start, and though the romance started out a little cheesy (yes, of course, there's romance with the princess), I really enjoyed this movie. It all leads up to a grand finale with awesome battles and a clever nod to the author of the book. Treat yourself to some fun and go see it, too!

Incarnate

This is a very strange book. Incarnate, by Jodi Meadows, is a young adult novel about a society of people who have been reincarnating for 5000 years with no exceptions until one day, one person doesn't come back and a new soul is born.

I don't believe in reincarnation, but since some people do believe it, I wasn't sure what I would think of this book. I didn't want it to be too real, to take itself too seriously. And thankfully, it didn't. It's an odd combination of genres, mostly fantasy with a bit of dystopia in it. Overall, I enjoyed it and it read pretty fast, but there were aspects of it that I didn't like, too.

Ana is the new soul. A million souls have been born again and again, and everyone knows each other. So, when Ciana dies and doesn't come back and Ana is born instead, she is unwelcome at the very least. Even her own mother hates her. Ana leaves home after her eighteenth birthday in hopes of finding out the truth about herself in the great city of Heart. But before she gets there, creatures of shadow and fire, called sylph, nearly kill her twice. A boy who appears to be her age in this reincarnation but who has a soul just as old as everyone else's, rescues her and tries to show her that she is worthwhile and not a mistake. But Ana always feels as though she is playing catch-up, a mere fleeting butterfly amidst the old souls who find her a curiosity or a blemish. Can love make Ana see herself any differently? Will the community of old souls ever accept her? Or will she be a blip on the screen of their lives, forgotten after she's dead?

As I said before, I wasn't sure I would like the idea of this book, but it grew on me, particularly as the mysteries surrounding Ana mounted up. In the city of Heart, there's a great Temple that rises past the clouds, has no entryway, and gives off a pulse. The citizens of Heart don't seem to be bothered by it, but Ana is creeped out around it. The city is attacked by dragons now and then, and the dragons attempt to attack the Temple but don't even succeed in scratching it. The Temple is probably the most intriguing fantasy element of the book.

The tension and romance between Ana and Sam, her rescuer, is a little too drawn out. I felt like I was watching an episode of TV's Smallville where Lana says she just can't trust Clark...for the hundredth time. You can only push one plotline so far without it getting stagnant. In Incarnate, Ana is always misinterpreting Sam's actions toward her, always belittling herself, always seeing herself as a "nosoul." That will put a strain on any relationship, not to mention the 5000-year difference in age. Ana has a bit of a hard time accepting it, for good reason. So does the reader.

Sometimes I felt like the author was trying to live vicariously through her writing, as some do, making it more sensational than it needed to be, like a dream you try to hang onto when you wake up just as it was getting good. The romance felt a little forced, a little too unbelievable even though great amounts of the book were dedicated to it. For the most part, aside from the weirdness of the age difference, it was a clean romance, though there were awkward moments and Ana ends up living in Sam's house as his student. This isn't quite Stockholm Syndrome, but it felt similar. And I'm never for a guy and girl who aren't married living alone together. But that aside, there was one moment where Sam acts totally out of character at a masquerade and things get a little steamy then and after (though, no sex), and I kept expecting the author to reveal that Ana had mistaken this other person for Sam. But, no.

Unfortunately, the book is mostly a romance, and the mystery part is just the backdrop. I like romances, and I did enjoy this book. But something about it was just weird sometimes, not one particular thing but  a bunch of all these little things I've mentioned put together.

However, the reincarnation idea was fascinating, and I thought the author explored it pretty well, showing what it would be like for old souls to live so many years together, even in different bodies (and genders!) and what it would mean to be only eighteen years old as opposed to 5000. This isn't a must-read, but it's not a bad one either.


Incarnate is out this month. Three stars.

Winterling

Well, I didn't have high hopes for this book after noting on the cover of the last book I read a quote from this author, Sarah Prineas, saying that The Cabinet of Earths was the best thing she'd read in a long time. If you read my last book review, you know my thoughts on that book were far different. But, happily, Winterling exceeded my expectations. It is also a middle school novel, aimed at grades five and up, available this month. It's much more of a fantasy than The Cabinet of Earths, which is based more in the modern world and has only small fantastical elements in it, and maybe that's part of why I like Winterling better.

Fer (short for Jennifer) has never fit into her world, though she didn't know her world was even optional until the night she accidentally opened the Way into another. Now, armed with the herbal healing magic of her grandmother, she's on a quest to discover the truth about her parents' deaths. The beautiful Lady of the land wants her loyalty, and Fer is on the edge of giving it when she realizes that something doesn't feel right in this new world. There's a stain on it, and Fer is determined to find out why and what it has to do with her family. But her closest ally is a shape-shifting Puck with a powerful thrice-sworn oath to the Lady...the Lady whose secrets might be at the heart of the winter that's only overturned with a blood sacrifice. True spring may already be lost forever. And Fer is just a young girl, seemingly without power.

Although I really like romance, the nice thing about middle school fiction is that it often doesn't have any and, therefore, can focus on the story (not that it always does very well; see my last book review). Winterling is great storytelling. Interesting. Creative. Narrowly focused. An adventure with a heroine who grows up in some ways but is still a kid. It's age appropriate but not boring for older readers. I suppose the thought processes that guide this heroine are still a bit more simplistic than in young adult fiction; I don't particularly see a need to do that, but since the rest of the story is strong, I can call it "being focused" and let it go.

There are, perhaps, minor plot holes here and there. For instance, the biggest one I can think of is that Fer's grandmother, who seems to be fully of this world (unlike Fer herself, as we find out), teaches Fer healing magic, and you don't ever know where the grandmother herself got it from. It's just something you're supposed to accept.

I've already said the book is clean by virtue of completely eliminating any romantic storyline. For younger readers, just be aware that the evil Lady (or Mor, as she is called) is sort of witch-like, though she isn't ever called that, and she kills creatures that aren't fully beasts. The book is also obviously magical, and Fer does healing "spells." These magical elements seem harmless to me, but I know some people are conscientious about the use of magic in books. If you don't know what I'm talking about, then I'm not talking to you here.

Anyway, Winterling is a hitch in my theories about middle school fiction, and I'm glad for it. If you are looking for a simple, good adventure without all the romance to potentially muck it up, this is a decent one.

Touch of Power

I first found a Maria V. Snyder book in a box of advance reader's copies, and I have been hooked ever since. My favorite series of hers is the Poison Study series. She also has a Glass series that takes place in the same fantasy world. I was less fond of Inside Out, the first book of a science fiction series that seems to take place in an enclosed community in outer space. There is a second book in that series that I have on my shelf but have not read yet. Snyder shines brightest in her fantasy worlds, I think. I found Inside Out boring in comparison to her other books.

Touch of Power is her ninth book, unrelated to her previous fantasy novels but a new fantasy novel that appears to be the beginning of a new series. It looked good, but when I started reading it, I was initially bored. Perhaps that had something to do with being in labor at the time...ha, ha...because when I picked up the book to read this time, I realized I hadn't gotten more than a chapter in and I'd quit right before it all got interesting.

In Touch of Power (I'm less impressed with the title than the book), Avry is the last healer, a magician who can take a person's sickness or wounds onto herself and heal herself ten times faster than the average human. Sounds like she would be in high demand, doesn't it? But the healers are blamed for the plague that ruined the Fifteen Realms, so Avry is on the run for her life. If only she didn't have a soft spot for healing kids. When she's finally caught, her only options are execution or imprisonment at the hands of her mysterious "rescuers," who want her to heal a prince she hates. As she journeys with them, she causes a lot of trouble, learns how to defend herself properly, makes new enemies and friends, and even sort of falls in love. It's great adventure, intriguing magic, and memorable characters that make me love Snyder's fantasies.

There are a few weaknesses in this one. I caught a turn of phrase that was reminiscent of the main character in the Glass series, and it was so exactly like what she would have said that it caught me off guard in this book. Otherwise, Avry is typical of Snyder's strong heroines but also a character all her own. Her traveling companions are all interesting except that Vinn and Quain, two less important characters, could be interchangeable. The villains are great. Snyder likes to vilify her heroines' love interests at first and then have the heroine get attached to them...a little Stockholm Syndrome going on there, but it works. Mainly it creates romantic tension. I thought the end was a little mushy. Not trying to give much away here, but you wouldn't be up for having sex if you were dying, would you? I mean, come on.

And now I come to Snyder's greatest flaw: character morality. I guess it's called Fantasy for a reason. So many fantasies kind of just throw certain aspects of morality out the door. After all, if you create a world where STD's don't exist, why not have characters sleeping together left and right? Snyder does it in all her fantasy books. She's isn't particularly graphic about it, which I appreciate, but she treats the subject like it's no big deal, which I guess it isn't to many people nowadays. We're talking sex outside of marriage here. When I read her first series, it was targeted toward teens. I assumed her Glass series was young adult as well but then noticed it wasn't advertising itself as such. Touch of Power also does not advertise itself as young adult. Though it's probably mostly okay for teens, I'd agree that it's not specifically for them. The Glass series, on the other hand, had some very mature themes in it, and after I'd read it, assuming it was young adult, I was kind of shocked until I realized I'd been assuming something that wasn't necessarily true. However, even the Poison Study series gets darker in the third book. Touch of Power is tamer than both.

So, maybe Maria V. Snyder is my guilty pleasure, but fast-paced fantasy that doesn't bog you down in details and stars independent, strong-willed, stubborn female characters seems like it's hard to come by. If I'm wrong about that, let me know! (And here my husband is telling me for the thousandth time to read Wheel of Time, but honey, I'd have to read all the boring male parts, too.)

Three and a half stars for a good (but not the best) Maria V. Snyder fantasy romance.

Under the Never Sky

The title is great: Under the Never Sky. The book cover is decent, if a little run-of-the-mill for young adult fiction these days. But Veronica Rossi's debut novel details a dystopian world that is beautiful, while frightening, and a story that is simply fun to read.

Aria has a voice to match her name, but nobody knows about it because she lives most of her life in a virtual world where anything is possible and true talent isn't required. In reality, she lives in a Pod, where life is boring but safe from the Death Shop, as the outside world is called. The virtual Realms are a means of coping with Pod life.

Peregrine lives on the Outside, the product of generations of evolution under a dangerous sky. He has heightened sight and smell, sharp canine teeth, and a family that's practically royalty in his world. His brother is Blood Lord of their tribe, and if Peregrine ever challenged him, he could be Blood Lord instead.

When Peregrine's nephew is kidnapped by the Pod dwellers and Aria is tossed into the Death Shop, these two strangers bred to hate each other must help each other restore their honor and get back the things they've lost. If it isn't too late already....

I might as well tell you, this is a pretty standard romance from a purely plot-oriented point of view. Two people who can't stand each other eventually fall in love after forced time together. But what makes it worth reading are the details. The story implies that it takes place at a time in our future, on our own world, but because of the evolutionary changes, there are elements of fantasy. The world is detailed beautifully, and one can see how the author was an artist before she became a writer, as she admits. The characters are fascinating with intriguing motivation behind their actions, and characters usually are the main reason I like or dislike a book. Granted, these characters are more attractive than most people are in real life, which panders to young adult vanity. A minor flaw to some eyes, perhaps.

There are other flaws which don't make the book less interesting but which do make it less well-written, I suppose. There is more than one scene where someone comes to the rescue just in time and kills all the bad guys. It happens enough to make it seem like the author is pulling punches, adding as much danger as she can and then bringing in someone with special powers to take care of it all...bordering on Deus ex machina happy endings. It cheats the reader a little.

Morally, the book is not as sound as I would like it to be. Though nothing is graphically depicted, the main male character, 18 years old, is portrayed as something of a ladies' man. He has slept with at least two other girls that we know about with no intention of anything more serious because he believes he has to marry a girl with the same heightened senses as his in order to keep the blood lines strong. This casual attitude toward sex, particularly in a young adult novel, always bothers me. It's not right in the real world, but even though it sometimes makes a weird kind of sense in a dystopian novel (and I'm not saying it does in this one), that doesn't make it right in fiction either. People, girls particularly, live vicariously through what they read, and that kind of stuff gives them a desire for something that's not good.

One other thing I noticed was the amount of violence and killing in the book. This makes more sense in this kind of story, but our 18-year-old hero was killing people left and right, including (SPOILER ALERT) an important relative. It didn't sit right with me, particularly at the end of the book. That one bothered me the most. Trying to be mildly vague here. Normally, I wouldn't mind too much, particularly in fantasy where the villains are truly evil. In this case, the killing was done partially to survive, but what bothered me was the killing done mostly for cultural reasons. It just wasn't right.

Well, this is one of those books where the romance comes to a mostly satisfactory end but the plot does not, indicating a series is to follow. I am interested in reading the rest of the series, despite the book's flaws, because it really is a fun story with plenty of danger, adventure, and romance.

Four stars for readability, brought down to three stars for questionable morality. Comes out in February 2012.